Marco Kasper is the only Red Wing with a neck guard, hopefully that changes in the future

A little thought on safety and a tool most NHLers don't use to protect themselves.

One of the wonderful things about being a parent is how kids make you think about the world.

And on Saturday, while helping my daughter get ready for her hockey game, she asked me why she had to wear a neck guard. Now my wife and I have done our best not to lie to the kids, so while I didn’t use graphic details, I did tell her that wearing a neck guard could save her life from a skate blade.

Later that night I watched the Detroit Red Wings play the Montreal Canadiens on TV, and in that game just two players, Marco Kasper and Patrik Laine, were wearing neck guards.

When the Red Wings host the St. Louis Blues tonight, Kasper will be the only player wearing a neck guard in the game because the two Blues that wear them, Scott Perunovich and Brandon Saad, are expected healthy scratches.

Since Adam Johnson’s tragic on-ice death various leagues have taken steps to make cut-proof neck guards a requirement, including the AHL. In the NHL, however, few players are wearing neck guards, and as of November only 55 of 708 skaters were using that form of protection.

It’s something that you can’t help but think about, especially after the recent close call where Michael McCarron was cut by Lian Bichsel’s skate up higher on his neck, something he quickly pointed out wouldn’t have been helped by a neck guard.

So on Monday morning I asked Kasper why he still wears a neck guard in the NHL, when most of his peers discard the piece of equipment after graduating from the AHL, where everyone is required to wear one.

“They’re actually really comfortable for me, with the brand I’ve used with it built into my shirt,” Kasper said. “I think the biggest thing for some guys is the comfort level, they just feel more comfortable without it.”

There’s also an unspoken peer pressure to it, Kasper said. Once you reach the NHL, it’s normal to ditch the neck guard, almost a rite of passage, and when Kasper made his NHL debut during the 2022-23 season, a one-game cameo, he actually did his best to roll the neck guard down to better fit in.

“When you look around and nobody is wearing it, you try to fit in like that,” Kasper said. “So you try to roll it down or don’t wear it all, because you want to be like everyone else, prove you belong. But then the accident happened (with Johnson), and you think about it and I’ve never thought about rolling the neck guard down again.”

Kasper is only 20, he admittedly doesn’t think much about the role model element of being an NHLer, but when I told him the impetus for this story — a conversation with my own kid about neck guards — Kasper said he was happy to be an example on TV for parents to show their kids.

“There are options now to keep yourself safe, and I think you just have to find what feels comfortable and grow to get used to it,” Kasper said.